Aurora had her first operation today (hopefully she has very few in her life). When she was born, she had an umbilical hernia - essentially a small tear in her stomach muscle underneath her belly button. It isn't anything that gives/gave her pain, but something that cosmetically should be sorted out early on in life, and could have adverse effects later on in life (so suggested that it's taken care of around this age). Anyway, the worst parts of the day were that she couldn't eat from about 7:30am onwards this morning (and for our mobile food monster, this is an issue). So, she was STARVING while we were waiting - constantly crying for food, which was particularly hard to say no to. We turned up to the hospital at about midday (prime nap starting time) and after waiting... and waiting... and waiting for 3 hours, we finally got in to see the surgeon at about 3pm. Those 3 hours seemed like an eternity (also given that we were not able to eat anything since breakfast) with her being so tired and hungry, but she trooped on through like the little champion she is. Both Steph and I were present when she was anaesthetised - which was a bittersweet moment. Actually seeing her put to sleep was something I don't want to see again - her passing out in front of me and going limp - however the sweet moment came in the 10 seconds before it happened. For pretty much the whole day up until that point, Aurora wanted very little to do with me (it was all "Mummy, Mummy, Mummy" - understandably), but right before she went out, as Steph was holding her in her arms, she cried out "Daddy chuggle" (cuddle), so we all had a group cuddle while she went under. The surgery itself lasted about 20 minutes, and she was out of the anaesthetic about 20 minutes after that. We had to hang around the hospital for another hour to see if she was going to have any side effects (during which time she consumed water, an icy pole, a banana, a punnet of strawberries, 3 crackers and about 4 biscuits). During this time she was in pain, and in a fair bit of discomfort but some pain relief seemed to help a great deal. We got home around 5:30pm, had a little bit of dinner and then she completely crashed out. Tomorrow we'll be taking it easy I think... and hoping she's not feeling too bruised and battered in her tummy.

On a final note, Aurora's cutest moment of late; A few times in the past week she's stuck her hands up as high as they go, had a very pained expression on her face (one of absolute frustration and sheer exacerbation) and stated "Can't reach. Can't reach the sky!" Yes, she's trying to touch the sky. What a crazy idea - she's a wacky kid and I love her to bits...

Labels: Aurora